Thai surrogate mother devastated by abuse charges

An Australian man who fathered twins through a surrogate mother in Thailand has reportedly been charged with sexually abusing the children and possession of child pornography.

The NSW man, in his 50s, and his "significantly" older wife reportedly turned to surrogacy when they discovered they were unable to have children and that adoption was not available to them.

The couple approached Siriwan Nitichad, 23, to carry the man's child and to use her own eggs in the pregnancy.

An Australian father of surrogate twins has reportedly been charged with abusing them. Photo: Brisbane Times

The ABC cites court documents in which police allege sexual abuse occurred when the children were under 10 years old, reportedly at a time when the man's wife was ill in hospital and he was taking care of them.

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Police also allege the man indecently dealt with one child in the presence of the other, and that he encouraged the child to touch him inappropriately by offering stickers and lollies and threatened to smack the child if they did not do as he asked, A Current Affair reported, citing the court documents.

The man is also facing charges relating to possession of dozens of images of child pornography.

The court documents reportedly allege the father had a violent temper and that he became unemployed after the couple brought the children home.

The marriage ended, and his former wife took sole custody of the two children.

Now aged 31, Ms Nitichad told the ABC she was paid about $5500 for the surrogacy. She lives in a province 400km north of Bangkok called Petchabun, a place the Bangkok Post has dubbed Thailand's "baby farm" because of a growing number of inhabitants who are being paid for surrogate children.

The man is expected to face a NSW court in December. He denies the allegations.

The baby Gammy case involving a couple taking a healthy twin baby girl home, but leaving behind her brother with Down syndrome has forced Thai authorities to respond to the burgeoning but largely unregulated surrogacy industry.

Gammy's biological father, West Australian man David Farnell, is a convicted child sex offender.

Under tougher guidelines recently proposed by Thai authorities, up to 200 Australian couples with babies recently born to a surrogate mother face a lengthy court process to gain official clearance to take the baby out of the country.